Clark Stone Discusses Haynes and Boone's Entry Into California Market

02/04/2009

Haynes & Boone Absorbs California IP ShopThe Recorder

Lawyers at San Jose, Calif.'s MacPherson, Kwok, Chen & Heid are hoping that, as they give Haynes and Boone two footholds in California, the Texas-based Am Law 200 firm will improve their ability to compete for bigger and more diverse work.

MacPherson Kwok, a 21-lawyer intellectual property law boutique founded in 2002, is merging into Haynes and Boone, a corporate firm with more than 500 lawyers. The deal, announced Tuesday, gives Haynes its first offices in California, in San Jose and Orange County.

San Francisco legal consultant Katharine Patterson sees ... Haynes and Boone, for example, is not just picking up a partner with a book of litigation business, but a group of "hard core, widely trained counseling, prosecuting and litigating patent attorneys who are used to servicing clients across a broad range of IP litigation issues," Patterson said. "This is the way a practice used to be done in 'patent firms.'"

Terry Conner, managing partner at Haynes and Boone, said the MacPherson Kwok additions would bring his firm's IP practice to 70 lawyers.

For the MacPherson lawyers, who lost name partner Alan MacPherson to a heart attack in December, combining with Haynes and Boone offers up the chance to go after meatier cases, including more trademark litigation, [Partner Clark] Stone said. With the backing of a more diversified firm, they will also be able to offer more services to existing clients, such as helping solos and inventors form their own companies.

MacPherson's focus was IP and general business litigation and writing patents and pursuing trademarks for clients such as Cisco, eBay and Samsung.

Email Disclaimer

Sending an email will not establish an attorney-client relationship. You should not send us any information that you want treated confidentially. By clicking Accept you acknowledge that we may review and use any information you transmit to us.